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2 years of experience as CRA, how to quickly become a project manager

Transcription  : Hello everyone, this is Vanessa Montanari from the Clinical Research blog. Today, I’m going to answer a new question.

« I am writing to you for your advice. I have been an CRA for a year and a half and CRA 2 recently. I would like to become a project manager being from Bordeaux. What training would you advise me? Have a nice weekend. »

So, first of all, what I would like to say in relation to this question is that there, you have two years of experience, it’s very short to be able to become a project manager. For the simple and good reason that being a project manager also means being credible and with two years of experience, you don’t generally have all the knowledge necessary to be credible with the other CRA you’re going to manage. So, that said, that doesn’t prevent you from training as a project manager. There are several, there are training courses that target the project manager part a little bit; in the universities there are Masters II on this and then there must also be a private training course that does it in the Paris region.

Having said that, I think that this is just a plus for the day when you become a project manager, but it’s not what will allow you to get the job you want. In fact, the strategy that I recommend is to work in small structures or work in the hospital where you can more easily get this type of position with the experience you have. And because also in small structures, you will be more easily given the chance to touch different types of tasks and probably also to touch project management. And then you’ll see afterwards to get into bigger structures with your experience as a project manager.

That’s it, I think it’s the best solution to be able to evolve towards this type of position quickly if you wish. Otherwise, on average, to become a project manager in large CROs, it takes a minimum of ten years to reach the position of project manager. In the meantime, you can move on to the position of coordinator, which is called clinical trial manager. It’s a position that is just below the project manager position, and it’s more like managing the clinical research associate monitoring.

So I hope this message helped you.

Remember to register on the clinical research blog to get our book. We give you a lot of information there, it’s a mine of information that we’ve created for you. Don’t hesitate to go there and in particular to get the guides « how to train and find a job at CRA » and also « conducting a successful clinical study ».

Here you go, have a nice day and see you soon!